What I Learned at Harvard

Each January I participate in the YPO Harvard Presidents’ Program, an executive education program exclusively available to YPO members, which upon graduation grants you HBS Alumni status.

It takes a minimum of 9 years to graduate from the program which is structured like a “Mini MBA” that keeps up with the times. For example, this year we studied cases which were less than 6 months old, including; the Covid impact on Princess Cruises, Valuing Peloton and a Fine Jewellers’ sales experience going virtual.

Like most things YPO, the value is in the people who attend. Of the ~30,000 global members, only 180 (0.6%) get the chance to attend HBS each year. Everyone is a CEO, Founder or President of a substantial enterprise which makes the peer learning and shared experiences second to none. I was waitlisted for 3 years before getting my chance to participate.

Unsurprisingly, some of my favourite takeaways over the past week were the cases we studied on Family Business, Stewardship and Generational Wealth.

I can’t share the cases with you but I will encourage you to read some of these supporting articles from HBR which stirred lively debate amongst our cohort:

I’m looking forward to getting back to Boston in January 2022 for another in-person learning experience.

Inspired by my podcast episode with Richard Eyre, who discussed the concept of a “Family Bank”, Conor Neu put it into action with his kids to create the “Neu Bank”.

I’m so impressed by this and know you’ll enjoy reading the full tweet thread including progress photos too.

Mike Boyd is the co-owner and CEO of the Vroom Group, Founder of Prosura insurance, Investor at Mudbrick Capital, Host of The Business of Family Podcast and an active member of YPO.